Canada Day Weekend, July 1 - 4, 1998

July 1st is Canada Day here, much like July 4 is Independence Day in the U.S. We do much the same things - celebrate our country. Most places have fireworks, parades of some kind, and other more and less official activities. Being across the river from the Provincial Legislature, the 21 gun salute (using one of those big cannon-type guns (I'm sure my friend Devin will provide the correct name if he ever reads this)) is quite noticeable.

Later in the evening, before the fireworks, our bridge waterfall is turned on. I didn't take pictures, since I've got one elsewhere from daytime. We also get a flyby by helicopters and jets from the nearest air force base. I forgot about the jets, and so wasn't ready when they roared overhead. The helicopters are quite a bit slower, however, so I got some fuzzy pictures of them. The first shot shows them arriving from the east, and the second shot shows the departure.

Part of the fun of this celebration for me is just watching (and listening to!) the crowds. My next-door neighbours had some school children over who were very loud, and kept encouraging the crowd to sing "Oh Canada!", our national anthem. It was quite cool and wet (check the puddle on the sidewalk in the first picture here), so things weren't as enthusiastic as last year, when there were hot rods zooming along with huge flags, etc. The first picture here is early in the evening, and shows the best view, but of a smaller crowd. Note also all the vehicles on the normally deserted grassy hill just this side of the river. The second and third pictures were later in the evening, and so I've had to enhance them to make anything visible.

These pictures of fireworks (none very good) are not actually from the city's Canada Day fireworks. Instead, they are from the day before (June 30), when the local baseball team puts on a 10 minute show after the game. In some ways that is a better show for me, since it is closer. The city show was about the same length, but was bigger fireworks. This set started about 11:45 p.m. and lasted until 12:00. Note the still noticeable brightness in the sky.